RE: Familiarity with the Earth Sciences
August 25, 2017 at 1:47 pm
(This post was last modified: August 25, 2017 at 1:50 pm by Thumpalumpacus.)
(August 24, 2017 at 11:23 am)TheBeardedDude Wrote: In general, what experience (education primarily but any other relevant experiences too) does everyone have with the earth sciences? (geology, paleontology, climate science, paleoclimatology, etc). Please indicate any high school classes or college classes as well as if you're a theist, agnostic, atheist, etc
Agnostic atheist here. No practical experience in the Earth sciences, but I did have a physical geography class in college a couple of centuries ago, and do occasional reading on the side in the subject. Most of that reading is related directly to paleontology and what I've learnt from other Earth sciences from that reading is incidental and not a result of direct study. I've also had biology and chemistry at the high-school level, excelling in the former and limping through the latter.
1) 4.8 billion years, roughly.
2) Yes.
3) Yes, especially when one considers the overlapping data from paleontology and plate tectonics.
4, 5, and 6) Somewhat. I understand the principle of decay, and understand that life can and does have preferences for this or that isotope that can give clues as to the environment conditions. I also know that prior extinction events are correlated with spikes in various elements and/or isotopes thereof, which may well be clues to those extinctions and by analogy to the current extinction event I think we're seeing (I'm thinking mainly of the Siberian vulcanism that accompanied one of those events -- but there may be others and I'd be happy to learn about them).
7) It is a fact, whether I believe in it or not is irrelevant.
8) I do.
9) It's my understanding that climates are regional phenomena, but that they interact on a global level in such a manner that changes in one area can and do have ramifications in other areas. It's in the latter sense that this question relates to global climate change, in my view (for instance, rising temperatures melting polar ice, reducing albedo, causing temperature rises elsewhere).
10) I think human overpopulation is the biggest single problem, insofar as it affects climate change, pollution, habitat destruction, resource depletion, and so on.
